#2: Outside shooting
The next thing that will be making an appearance on the Lakers Christmas wish list is outside shooting. This is by far the biggest weakness of the team in an era in which it is arguably the most important skill for a team to have.
The Lakers have a roster that is filled with shooters in the form of role players. Despite this, the shooters they have on the roster while qualified are extremely inconsistent and more often than it should happen they all hit a cold streak on the same night.
The front office made moves this offseason in hopes of ending the Lakers’ shooting woes. Those moves being the signings of both Wesley Matthews and Marc Gasol.
Matthews started the season off on the wrong foot from the three-point line. Missing both of his two attempts from three and finishing the game with zero points. However, last season with the Milwaukee Bucks, Matthews show 36% from three on 4.4 attempts per game.
Gasol did not take a single shot in the Lakers season opener against the Los Angeles Clippers. However, he was brought in to be a center that can stretch the floor and create driving lanes for LeBron James and Anthony Davis with that spacing. Last season on the Toronto Raptors, Gasol shot 38.5% from three on 3.4 attempts per game.
On paper, the Lakers should be one of the better shooting teams in the league from three, however, for whatever reason despite having great shooters all over the roster it is not the case. The Lakers will be asking for a little bit of Christmas magic to make their shots begin to fall from three.